Chapter Fifteen

Maybe Tonight You'll Be Gone

Varissa was preparing to feel the heat of the flames consume her when all of a sudden her eyes shot open and she was looking out into the Beowulf's Cryo-Chamber room as her own chamber hissed and its front slid open. She heard two more chambers do likewise. She was disoriented but one thing pushed through the fog and brought her to full attention.

"FREDDY!" she yelled out into the room.

"I am sorry, Dr. DeGenarro. It looks like you did not succeed in bringing him back," Talos-16 said as he lowered the Plasma Rifle he had been pointing in the direction of the cryo chambers.

Varissa looked defeated. She glanced around the room and saw six of the chambers covered in heavy canvas. Talos had made sure they would not have to see their fallen friends upon returning to the Beowulf from the dreamscape. "I can't believe they're all gone," Varissa said softly.

"Hey, hey, Talos...buddy do you mind if I hold onto that?" Nero asked as he exited his cryo chamber and crossed the room to stand by Talos, Talos nodded approvingly and handed the rifle to Nero. Nero put the strap over his shoulder and let the gun hang from his back.

Varissa stared at the big man for a moment, letting go of the threat of Freddy and her sadness at the loss of her deceased crew mates. A smile grew on her face as their eyes met. Life was short and they had all barely survived. She rushed from her chamber, grabbed Nero's right hand and pulled him into a hug and laid a kiss on him. Nero was taken aback but began kissing her as well. After a moment. he pulled back.

"Hey, it's good to see you too," he said before wrapping his arms back around Varissa and laying another kiss on her. Finally, they pulled apart as another voice rang out.

"Talos!" Lubdan called from his cryo-chamber. He tried to rush to his android friend's side and almost fell over from the disorientation of coming out of cryo-sleep

"Whoa, that would have sucked," he said as he threw his arms around Talos-16, the android returning the gesture. "I'm so glad to see you."

"And I you," Talos replied.

"Ow...Ow," Lubdan cried out, wincing at the pain in his right shoulder and left forearm. "Maybe not so tight"

"I apologize," Talos said with a smile.

"I'm glad we all made it out," Varissa said with her arm around Nero's waist and his arm around hers. "But we have to stop Freddy. Talos, put me back under. I'll try to pull him out again or kill the bastard in his own world! I was so close!"

"Indeed, Freddy is a problem we still need to solve but I am afraid we have a bigger issue at hand," Talos said solemnly, still in an embrace with Lubdan.

Lubdan released his hug on the android and stepped back. "What is it?" he asked.

"Yeah, what is a bigger deal than Freddy?" Varissa asked. She broke free of Nero and put her hands on her hips staring at the android inquisitively.

Talos-16 explained the surge Freddy had caused after Candilynn's death and how it had damaged the comms so they could not call for help and how it had damaged the auto-piloting system which in turn made it where they would not automatically come out of warp speed at the end of their cryo-sleep cycle like it had been programmed.

"Okay, well just take us out of warp speed. You're an android. You can get into the system, yeah?" Nero asked.

"It is not that simple. The auto-pilot warp speed programming was set by Pilot Warlock and because of the damage to the system it has to be shut off manually. Only Warlock holds the special pilot code to make that possible and sadly he is no longer able to divulge that information. I do apologize that I did not inform you when I was in the dreamscape but I did not want you to worry more than you already were. However we are currently flying blind and are moving further and further away from where we were supposed to come out of warp speed. Warlock had set a safe path with no obstructions. If we do not stop warp speed we could collide with any number of things at anytime and it would be an instantaneous death for us all."Talos explained.

"Oh, wow... What's the bad news, bud?" Nero asked sardonically.

"There is one possible solution," Talos added.

"And that is?" Varissa asked.

Talos-16 looked at Lubdan and Lubdan immediately knew what his friend was thinking.

"The shuttle?" Lubdan asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes, hypothetically we would have at least a thirty percent chance of successfully launching the shuttle at the right speed and angle to survive the launch while the ship is at warp speed.

"May I ask what happens if we don't successfully do all that stuff?" Nero asked with concern showing on his face.

"Basically, we'd be ripped into atoms," Lubdan answered.

"Oh, and I thought you were going to tell me it was something bad," Nero said with a dry laugh.

Varissa seemed to be deep in thought.

"Dr. DeGenarro, what do you think?" Talos asked.

"I think launching the shuttle is crazy. We can't do it," she said matter of factly.

"Well, what other option do we have, Dr. V?" Lubdan replied.

"Nyquilio," Varissa said looking straight at Talos-16.

Talos stared back blankly for a moment and then he perked up. "Of course, Dr. DeGenarro," Talos said while moving to the control panel of the Cryo-Lab. He waived his hands over the panel and a screen appeared. He scanned the screen and it flicked through several screens before landing on the one he was looking for. Talos examined it and turned to the crew.

"What? What is it? What do you mean Nyquilio?" Nero asked.

"He used Nyquilio's neural implant to gain access to the dreamscape and when he was in there he had a connection to a small part of Nyquilio's consciousness almost like a small backup of data like in a computer. Because the neural implant is still sort of powering part of the deceased crew mate's brains Talos can connect to Warlock's neural implant and hopefully be able to retrieve the information we need," Lubdan said. "Am I right?"

"Affirmative Lubdan," Talos said. He turned to Varissa, "We are wasting time, Dr. DeGenarro. You and Nero please make your way to the Cockpit. Lubdan and I will connect to Warlock through the central control panel in the Nano-Med lab. I will tell you how to prepare and once I am in what is left of Warlock's consciousness I will call out his passcode," Talos continued urgently.

"You got it bud," Nero said

"We'll be ready!" Varissa added as Nero took her hand. The two walked to the door of the cryo-chamber room, Nero placed his free hand on the scanner, and the door whooshed open and then closed behind them.

Talos waived his hand over the control panel in the middle of the cryo-chamber room and the screen disappeared. He then joined Lubdan as they followed Nero and Varissa towards the door of the cryo-chamber room that led to the corridor and on to the med lab.

"Did you get to work on Gallagher Sphere 2.0 at all?" Lubdan asked as he held his hand to the scanner and the cryo chamber room door whooshed open.

"Indeed, I was able to complete it before everything went bat shit crazy as you all would say. It actually exceeds even our expectations," Talos answered.

"Awesome, good work friend," Lubdan said as they left the cryo chamber room and turned down the corridor towards the lab and the door behind them whooshed closed.

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Nobody had noticed him hiding under the heavy canvas covering Colin "Butch" Stockard's Cryo-Chamber. He waited patiently, listening to every word, and when they had all left Freddy stepped out from behind Butch's chamber and pulled the canvas from it. He pushed on the chamber's cover and it slowly slid open. Freddy grabbed Butch's wrist and pulled on his arm with his left hand and then went to work with his bladed glove, cutting into Butch's dead arm. After a few moments Freddy had cut and pulled Butch's arm free from Butch's body from the elbow down.

"You fucks aren't going anywhere!" he growled as he headed for the Cryo-Chamber room's door.

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"Okay, we are in place," Nero said looking into the holographic screen in the cockpit. On the screen he saw Lubdan looking back at him.

"We are jacking Talos in right now," Lubdan responded.

Lubdan waived his hand over the control panel as Talos sat next to him and his index finger opened and a cord snaked out and connected to the panel. Talos closed his eyes and entered what was left of the consciousness of the deceased Warwick Rollins.

"Hold onto your dicks! As Warlock would always say," Varissa said from the cockpit.

Lubdan looked at the screen and smiled. "I know the two of you were very close, Dr. V. I am very sorry for your loss."

"Thank you, Lubdan. I appreciate it," she replied

"Alpha Foxtrot One Four Echo Zulu Two Eight X-Ray Hotel," Talos recited in a robotic monotone next to Lubdan and began repeating it.

"Did you get that guys?" Lubdan asked as he looked into the screen.

At the cockpit Nero looked at Lubdan on his screen. "I have received the passcode and I am putting it in according to Talos' instructions."

Varissa flipped three switches and pulled a lever as Talos had explained to them before going into Warlock's neural implant. Nero took hold of the manual controls with one hand as he waived his free hand over the control panel and a holographic screen appeared. A beep was heard prompting Nero to put in the passcode. He called it out "Alpha Foxtrot One Four Echo Zulu Two Eight X-Ray Hotel"

All the lights on the control panel and pilot board went out and then came back to life. A loud whirring noise could be heard from deep within the ship.

"Here we go," Varissa said.

The ship came out of warp speed. Varissa and Nero jumped to their feet and embraced in a hug.

"We did it!" Nero called towards the screen with Lubdan on it. Lubdan watched with a smile at Nero and Varissa hugging. He watched them kiss each other and then they turned towards the cockpit window and he watched as all joy drained from their faces.

"What's going on?" Lubdan asked with worry.

Beside Lubdan, Talos' eyes opened and the cord that ran from his index finger disconnected from the panel and retracted back into his open finger and the tip closed.

"Did we succeed?" Talos-16 asked.

"Um, Talos...We...uh...need you to look at this," Varissa said, a hint of panic creeping into her voice.

Varissa stared out of the cockpit window at something she herself had seen just days before when she dreamed of being chased by the red and green snakes. The snakes were terrifying yes but it was what Varissa was staring at in this waking moment that had scared her more in her nightmare.

"Is that what I think it is?" Nero asked in a small voice.

"Y...Yes," Varissa answered.

Outside the cockpit window was a gigantic black hole and the Beowulf was far, far too close. Nero waived his hand over the control panel to turn the screen towards the glass. Talos-16 looked at his screen in the nano med lab and knew without a doubt the Beowulf would not be able to escape being pulled into the black hole.

"What if we just turn the ship around and put it back into warp speed?" Lubdan asked turning to his friend, fear showing on his face.

Talos stared into Lubdan's eyes with a look of sorrow. "There is no time. It would take too long to attempt to turn the Beowulf around and then set up a warp speed trajectory. Our only hope is to prep the shuttle for a warp speed launch away from the black hole. From my calculations and our current distance from the black hole, we are already being pulled in. I would estimate we have six minutes until it is too late to escape even in the shuttle."

"Oh, god," Varissa said from the cockpit screen.

"What do we need to do?" Nero asked as the Beowulf was rocked by the pull of the black hole.

"You and Dr. DeGenarro head for the lift and meet us in the Nano-Med Lab. Lubdan and I will begin preparations," Talos answered.

"Roger that," Nero said waiving his hand over the panel to close the screen. "Let's go!" he said. He took Varissa's hand and they ran for the lift.

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"I am setting a clear trajectory for Somnium-5 in the Somnium Galaxy. It's our closest safe harbor," Lubdan said.

"Indeed," Talos said as he waived his hand frantically over the control panel to adjust the launch position of the shuttle.

The ship rocked again almost dumping Talos and Lubdan from their chairs. In that moment all the lights of the Beowulf went dark and were replaced by a slowly flickering red light.

"We have lost main power, Talos. Tell me we are still able to prep the shuttle's position," Lubdan begged.

"Affirmative, auxiliary power is at sustainable levels for our power requirements," Talos said. "I will just need to—

Talos was cut off by a voice calling to him from his screen.

"Um, guys, sorry to bother you but that power surge stalled the lift. We are in between floors and not moving," Nero said trying to sound calm.

"I'm sorry," Varissa said. "But what my ever so polite boyfriend is trying to say is—

"Boyfriend?" Nero asked.

"Sure, why not? You got a problem with that?" she asked

"No...no objections," he said, a hint of a smile in his voice.

"So," she continued. "What my boyfriend is politely trying to say is, Talos come FUCKING GET US!"

"I am on my way. Lubdan please finish setting the launch angle. It is almost complete," Talos said.

"You got it. Don't take too long. We got less than five minutes to boogey!" Lubdan called as he heard the door whoosh open and whoosh closed.

Lubdan got to work quickly waiving his hand frantically and let out a breath of relief as he finished prepping the shuttle. Behind him he heard the door whoosh back open and then felt a hand resting on his shoulder.

"Wow, that was fast," he said. He reached up, placing his hand on what he expected to be Talos' but instead he felt a cold stiff human hand lying on his shoulder. Lubdan slowly turned around and saw Freddy Krueger standing directly behind him holding a severed arm. The maniac waved the limb back and forth with a macabre smile on his burned face.

"Hiya Lubdan!" Freddy snarled dropping the hand and lunging at Lubdan, his bladed glove swinging down and connecting with Lubdan's chest. Blood sprayed onto Freddy and Lubdan's faces as the young scientist began to scream.

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